Personal protective equipment systems and methods for detecting removal of the equipment and other status conditions

Abstract

Systems and methods for monitoring data associated with a user of personal protective equipment (PPE) are described, including at least one sensor, at least one wireless communication device, a processor and a memory. The processor is configured to: control the at least one sensor to collect one of i) environmental data associated with the user, ii) biometric data associated with the user, or iii) positional data associated with the user; analyze at least a portion of at least one of the environmental data, the biometric data, or the positional data to determine i) that the user has removed the PPE device, ii) that the user has experienced a change in position or orientation, or iii) that the biometric data suggests an adverse health condition of the user.

1 . A personal protective equipment (PPE) device wearable by a user for monitoring a status of the user, the PPE device comprising:
 at least one sensor,   at least one wireless communications device;   a memory device, and   a processor configured to execute instructions stored in the memory device, which when executed by the processor, cause the processor to at least:
 control the at least one sensor to collect one of i) environmental data associated with the user, ii) biometric data associated with the user, or iii) positional data associated with the user; 
 analyze at least a portion of at least one of the environmental data, the biometric data, or the positional data to determine i) that the user has removed the PPE device, ii) that the user has experienced a change in position or orientation, or iii) that the biometric data suggests an adverse health condition of the user; and 
 in response to determining that the user has removed the PPE device, that the user has experienced a change in position or orientation, or that the biometric data suggests an adverse health condition of the user, generate at least one alert to identify the user. 
   
     
     
         2 . A method for monitoring a status of a user of a personal protective equipment (PPE) device, the method comprising:
 controlling by a processor of the PPE device, at least one sensor to collect one of i) environmental data associated with the user, ii) biometric data associated with the user, or iii) positional data associated with the user;   analyzing, by the PPE device, at least a portion of at least one of the environmental data, the biometric data, or the positional data to determine i) that the user has removed the PPE device, ii) that the user has experienced a change in position or orientation, or iii) that the biometric data suggests an adverse health condition of the user; and   generating, by the processor, an alert in response to determining that the user has experienced a change in position or orientation, that the biometric data suggests an adverse health condition of the user, or that the user has removed the PPE device.